Salvatore Giannella

"The fundamental values that distinguish us have allowed us to continue to achieve our goals and maintain a solid business continuity even during this difficult period."

"The story of a man, a family, a company, and a land that in the early twentieth century was defined as 'of the losers' and which proved in the third millennium to be that 'of the winners'. A story that starts from far away, from a small village in the Piedmontese Langhe, thirty-two kilometers from Alba, Farigliano, and from an apparition."

"Challenging because the man made discretion a rule (“dis lu a niun”, don’t tell anyone, was one of his favorite expressions); exciting because it allowed to shed light on the entrepreneurial humanism of the protagonist of a family business that has withstood the great crisis, that creates wealth with honor and distributes it fairly; that aims at profit not with the ruthless approach of predatory and rapacious capitalism, but according to the logic, to use his own words, that “doing good for oneself is also good for others”."

"How was Pasta Gianduja born? It was the beginning of 1946, a year of restart for Italy, with the reinstatement of journalists purified by fascism, the return of the Corriere della Sera to newsstands, and the resumption of radio broadcasts across the national territory, and the institutional referendum between the monarchy and the winning Republic. One day Giovanni, who had just returned from a trip to Turin, came to the laboratory and suggested to Pietro to experiment with something using molasses extracted from sugar beets. Pietro Ferrero starts with a panello, which is a solid residue of hazelnuts, obtained by extracting the oil; uses coconut butter, because cocoa butter was too expensive and difficult to find; and adds lean cocoa powder, sugar or molasses, and obtains a semi-solid mixture which he pours into rectangular molds, obtaining loaves that can be sliced. He submits his discovery to his wife and son, receiving their approval. Why the name Pasta Gianduja? Because the taste of the mixture prepared by Pietro Ferrero reminds of the gianduiotti that Turin pastry chefs had invented at the beginning of the nineteenth century, following the Continental Blockade imposed by Napoleon after the defeat at Trafalgar. The Blockade had led to the disappearance throughout Europe of most of the goods from the colonies, and the Turin craftsmen, to save cacao, mixed it with roasted hazelnuts. The day after finalizing Pasta Gianduja, also known as Giandujot, Giovanni arrives with his famous fire-red Fiat 1100, known throughout the Albese, to collect this new product, approved by the tasters Piera and Michele, and tries to place it with the bakers to whom he supplies yeast."

"An anecdote directly connects Michele Ferrero to the writer, who was three years older. Piero Negri Scaglione tells us about it in the biography of the author of Partigiano Johnny. During the war, in the days of the occupation of Alba, Fenoglio is invited to the home of a family of pastry chefs. "Come down to the cellar, Beppe, I have something to show you," the son of the house owner tells him. Fenoglio finds himself in front of a mysterious object covered by a cloth. "A new machine gun?" asks the writer. "No, much more," replies the young man, removing the cloth: "It's a machine for making chocolate. When the war is over, I will finally be able to devote myself to it full-time." That young man is Michele Ferrero."

""Sow with wisdom… Know that many seeds go outside the right soil, others are eaten by magpies... Those that go into the right meadow, into fertile humus, must be cared for, made to grow well, with slow and careful development. Slowness will ensure the quality of the fruits.""

"those first tastings and hazelnut-based products, Cioni provides some tasty details: "A challenging activity for Michele was finding the right proportions to blend hazelnut and chestnut powder together. He would crush the hazelnuts in class during lessons. He’d open the desk drawer, place the hazelnuts on the inside edge of the drawer, and then close it sharply, covering (or attempting to cover) the noise with a coughing fit. After crushing the hazelnuts, he’d use his pencil sharpener to reduce them to small pieces. Then he peeled the chestnuts and chopped those up as well. He measured the quantities of both ingredients and mixed them together on a piece of absorbent paper. He continued to grind the mixture with the pencil sharpener until it became almost powder-like. He would pick up a bit of the powder with the tip of the sharpener and invite us to taste it. Our judgments were always negative, also because by repeatedly working with the pencil sharpener on the desk to grind the mix, it tasted of wood and ink, and bits of absorbent paper would always end up in it." But Michele does not give up. "I must have got the proportions wrong," he explains. "I'll try with two thirds of hazelnuts and one third chestnuts. You'll see it will definitely be better." The hazelnut-chestnut"

"On a chalkboard in the Chemistry room, there is still a trace of the rules indicated by Mr. Michele to achieve exceptional uniqueness, an ideal compass for new entrepreneurs. "If you want to go bankrupt, listen to everybody. Without you making the final decision," is one of those guiding phrases."

"Giovanni. "Sow wisely," he repeats, "be aware that many seeds go outside of the right soil, others are eaten by magpies... those that go into the right meadow, in the fertile humus, must be cared for, made to grow well, with slow and careful development. The slowness will ensure the quality of the fruits.""

"A recurring phrase of Michele is precisely "go to chemistry," where every time there is a need for great concentration for important decisions, he has all the windows closed and, with his closest collaborators, tastes, cleanses the palate from the previous flavor, retastes, tries, and retries dozens of combinations. When he is in there, he loses track of time, does not know what is happening outside, whether it is day or night. Seletto still remembers: "One day we had seventy tastings in just a few hours: all those tests to evaluate the product's reaction… In short, Mr. Michele was a perfectionist to the highest degree." In those meetings, which sometimes last an entire day, anyone who gets distracted gets scolded. When Ferrero sees that someone is not following, he gets impatient: "Why do you come here, if you're not on my wavelength?" He doesn't get angry about mistakes, but about the lack of vibration, the poor participation in his own tension, the desire to understand, to learn new things. And at the center of all his creativity and the team's energies, he places the quality of the product."

"“A memorable day for me was when, having been recently hired, we were presented by an expert with the ice cream market scenario. The speaker talked and presented charts for almost two hours. After him, Mr. Michele took the floor and said: 'Well, have you taken note of everything the expert has said? Are you able to repeat what he said?' Everyone said yes. And he said, 'Good, now throw away everything you've learned.' It might have seemed like an attack on that expert speaker, but instead he explained that the scenario presented, which cost a lot of money, was useful because we had learned what not to do: 'That is the scenario in which our competitors operate; we instead want and must do something new, different, unique, against the current.' It was an incredible lesson.”"

"without problems of rancidity; the thin film that wraps the seed (perisperm) is easily removed after roasting."

""When necessary, he knew how to raise his hand and apologize if nervousness had led him astray in an unusual way. Say that in meetings he had to raise his voice for his role, in the car he would tell me: 'Call that gentleman' and he would apologize. He justified his anxieties like this: 'When I have an inspiration, I want to see it realized in real time, and if someone plays politics or makes agreements and creates dela"

"Mr. Michele gave inspiration and momentum to the product creation process which took place through four essential phases, tending: 1) to discover the latent needs of the consumer; 2) to transform these needs into product concepts; 3) to concretely realize products capable of satisfying such needs; 4) to finally define new exclusive technologies for large-scale industrial production."

"the parable of the mushroom hunters that Mr. Michele loved to repeat: "When you go looking for mushrooms, you will find that after a certain climb your legs will weigh you down, and you will have looked for a bench to sit on. Many, after the break, leave the bench and head back. That however is the time to restart towards the top because you will find good mushrooms with fewer searchers and you will be favored.""

"Michele is well aware of the concept of 'fresh'. "We all love fresh things because they are tastier, healthier, and more genuine. We must be able to provide fresh products to young people as well." It's clear that 'fresh' means different things. First of all, it's a pleasurable sensation for the palate, especially when it's hot and you're thirsty. But fresh also means genuine and natural, a product that retains the nutritional values of the substances it contains. In addition, fresh means without preservatives and chemical additives, that is, something that must go in the refrigerator like milk; a product as nature offers it."

"To use one of the metaphors he was fond of, a good entrepreneur must be like a good skeet shooter: hitting the target by aiming not at the launch station but further ahead. With a long-term vision, he had created the basis for the continuous increase in the value of products as the result of a constant and determined commitment that involved the use of resources, the making of investments, relentless efforts that lasted over time. The products have thus acquired a long-lasting life, progressively increasing their potential with the conquest of a significant competitive advantage in the market.""

"Did he know about Michele's experiments with hazelnuts during school in Mondovì? "No and I find this biographical detail curious. I believe this precursor sign is due to our grandfather Pietro, who was an inventor, had eccentric and original traits, very sui generis, of the first-generation entrepreneur, starting from pastry making and landing in the factory. Dad Michele breathed the air of the family pioneer, his father, who was also a man of extraordinary modernity and ahead of his time.""

"The strong ethical sense at the base of our entrepreneurial culture is our value chain: each of us works and walks along a path illuminated by the passion, dedication, and determination that we put into the product, from its creation with the highest quality and freshness, from the careful selection of raw materials, from sustainable agricultural practices and initiatives in favor of local communities, from the attention and respect for the individual in every environment in which we operate, in the name of responsible and transparent communication, to the shipping and delivery in the stores where the light shines and warms the hearts of consumers."

"research scared me and they did not want to bring it to France and so today the foreign market is already full of competitors. And then we invented a soft and extremely light little box which was an absolute novelty and the straw... - I was able to do all this because of being a family and not being listed on the Stock Exchange: this allowed us to grow calmly, to have long term plans, to know how to wait and not be caught up in the frenzy of the daily ups and downs."

"- Easter every day. What was the intuition that seemed the craziest but gave me the most satisfaction? It happened years later, in Italy, when I thought that the chocolate egg could not be something that was sold and eaten once a year, at Easter. But something smaller was needed, that you could buy every day at an affordable price, but it had to replicate that experience, and so the surprise was needed, but in miniature. I thought of Valeria as a mother, who could reward her child for getting a good grade at school, of Valeria as a grandmother who gave it away to be told, "You're the prettiest grandmother in the world," or of Valeria as an aunt who managed to get that kiss and hug from her nephew that always seemed so hard to win. But so much chocolate could worry mothers, so I thought of reversing the traditional assumption by advertising that there was "more milk and less cocoa," what better feeling for a mother than giving more milk to her child? So, I decided and ordered twenty machines to produce small eggs, but the company thought they had misunderstood or that I had gone mad and did not start the order."

""For example, he was not satisfied with knowing that the lemon was bought, say, from Calabria or the Amalfi Coast: he wanted to know at what altitude it was grown, whether it was exposed to the sun or not, then he wanted to know if two hundred meters higher there were other lemons perhaps with a different flavor, better, in short, the final choice became a choice derived from the extraordinary knowledge of the raw material. If you wanted to know all the details of an Indian mandarin, he would tell you with surprising details. He defined the product as 'an orchestra' and each raw material had to be tuned according to the score of that orchestra. But be careful: your product can be a catchy tune, but it risks only lasting one summer, or it can be a big work like La traviata, which lasts forever.""

"1) In your interactions, make your colleagues feel at ease. Dedicate the necessary time to them and not just scraps. Make sure to listen to what they have to say. Don’t give them the impression that you are on edge. Never make them feel 'small.' The most comfortable chair in your office should be reserved for them. 2) Make clear decisions and let your colleagues help you, they will believe in the choices they have contributed to. Learn to work together. If you do not understand the needs of those who follow you, you are done for: you interrupt the flow and are not cooperative. There should never be separation. 3) Involve colleagues in changes and details (success is a series of details lined up), and discuss them before implementation with those concerned. 4) Communicate favorable appreciation to workers, praise them publicly, communicate unfavorable ones privately when necessary. In the latter case, do not limit yourself to criticism, but indicate what should be done in the future to help learn. 5) Your interventions should always be timely: 'Too late' is as dangerous as 'Too soon.' 6) Act on causes rather than behavior. 7) Consider problems in their general aspect, allow employees some margin of tolerance. Think of yourselves as painters, not whitewashers. 8) Always be human. If you have a good relationship with people, you bring home a good result. If you argue, you bring nothing. 9) Do not ask for the impossible. 10) Serenely admit your mistakes, it will help you not to repeat them. And try to forgive some mistakes. 11) Care about what your colleagues think of you. 12) Do not pretend to be everything to your collaborators, in that case you would end up being nothing. 13) Beware of those who flatter you, in the long run they are more counterproductive than those who contradict you. And surround yourself with smiling people, they bring more luck. Man speaks from the head and the guts: when he speaks from the guts, do not listen too much and neither should you blame him. One must understand the weaknesses of man. 14) Always give what you owe and remember that often it is not a question of how much, but of how and when. 15) Never make decisions under the influence of anger, haste, disappointment, worry, but leave them for when your judgment can be more serene. 16) Remember that a good leader can make a normal man feel like a giant, but a bad leader can turn a giant into a dwarf. 17) If you do not believe in these principles, give up being a leader."

"Alba is already famous for its truffles, and the Langhe are on their way to becoming known for their wines, but no one has yet grasped the potential of the hazelnut, the one that the PGI specifications, Protected Geographical Indication, will call the 'round gentle trilobate of the Langhe' or more simply, 'Piemonte Hazelnut'. There is plenty, and of excellent quality. For its good yield – usually between twenty and thirty quintals per hectare – and especially for its organoleptic qualities it will then be considered the best variety in the world; many characteristics make it a winner in the market. A manual of hazelnut cultivation (from the Latin corylus, hazelnut) helps us to identify them. Meanwhile, the"

"Dear Madam, I am grateful for your kind invitation to give an interview for the prestigious daily newspaper with which you are associated. However, as you yourself write, I have made it a rule not to give them. Interviews are like cherries: if you start with one, it's then hard to resist the others. And I feel that I must instead continue to concentrate on the work that I am most passionate about: the search for ever new products, which meet the favor of consumers, like the Nutella you kindly mentioned. Warm wishes to you and your boyfriend."

"in 2009 I moved to the secretariat of Michele Ferrero. He was looking for someone who could be available also at unusual hours: 'I need a secretary to cover the nighttime part of my project activity.' Mr. Michele slept little: it could happen that an idea came to him, to be codified immediately, very early in the morning. I was used to the singularities of his requests: one day, during the Christmas period, I left for Brazil with a package of products to test for that market.""

"In the house in Montecarlo, where in 1997 he would retire, leaving the helm of the company in the hands of his children, he had a laboratory constructed, equipped with cutting-edge technology, where, with the help of specialized staff, he would continue to experiment with recipes."